retrieve the fallen onions. Cast Arthur Lowe as Captain Mainwaring John Le Mesurier as Sergeant Wilson Clive Dunn as Lance Corporal Jones John Laurie as Private Frazer James Beck as Private Walker Arnold Ridley as Private Godfrey Ian Lavender as Private Pike Bill Pertwee as ARP Warden Hodges Edward Sinclair as The Verger Fulton Mackay as Captain Ramsey Alex McAvoy as the Sergeant Pamela Manson as the NAAFI Girl Cy Town as Mess Steward Cultural references This episode uses the historically accurate scarcity of onions in 1942. This fictional story echoes a real incident in which an enthusiastic Home Guard unit involved in an exercise repelled the enemy by discharging small green apples from a Northover Projector. Fulton MacKay's portrayal of Captain Ramsey closely resembles his character from Porridge, Mr MacKay, right down to similar personalities and mannerisms. Only the pilot episode (Prisoner and Escort) of 'Porridge' had been screened by the time of this episode's recording. This episode was unique in the entire run of the television series of Dad's Army, that it involved virtually no interior television studio recording at BBC Television Centre in London, with nearly the entire episode recorded solely on location. Only one short scene between Lance Corporal Jones and Warden Hodges, which lasted 45 seconds, was actually filmed in a studio. This was due to a technicians strike at the BBC, which meant this was the only episode of the entire television series to be produced in this way. To get the laughter for the episode, it was played before an invited audience at BBC Television Centre, and their laughter was played in. References Further reading Dad's Army (series 6) episodes 1973 British television episodes